KARACHI: The Sindh government has fixed sugarcane minimum purchase price at Rs182 per 40kg for the crushing season 2014-15 starting from November 14.

The cane price was fixed at the meeting of Sindh Sugar Factories Control Board held on Tuesday with Minister of Agriculture Ali Nawaz Khan Mahar in the chair.

The minimum cane price had been Rs172 per 40kg for the last two years in the province.

Director Crops Deedar Ali Bhutto told Dawn that the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) had demanded the price to be fixed at Rs210, but the sugar mills opposed that idea and insisted that it should be maintained at last season’s level of Rs172 per 40kg.

The SAB wanted the government to notify the start of crushing season immediately but the representatives of sugar mills said that they need 10 to 15 days for heating up boilers, hence it is not possible to start crushing from November 1.

Deedar said that the legal action would be taken against mills which will not start crushing from November 14.

There are 37 sugar mills in Sindh of which 34 operated last year. The province produced 1,941,518.8 tonnes of sugar in last season while the amount of canes crushed was 18,998,035.8. This year sugar cane is sown on 310,400 hectares against 297,500 hectares last year.

Published in Dawn, October 29th , 2014